US Says It Knew of Pakistani Reactor

July 25th, 2006 at 18:53 Björn Hallberg

When Pakistan builds a heavy-water reactor geared specifically towards plutonium production the Black House turns to “dissuasion” and “discouragement.” As one commentator notes in brief over at Raw Story, Iranian nuclear facilities provoke a different reaction despite no one having proven that Iran is even gearing towards weapons production per se. Pakistan flat out admits wanting to modernize and expand its stockpile. A stockpile that it acquired while the US claimed to have the entire region under its aegis, ostensibly to prevent this exact thing from happening and still a pretext for US military presence in the region.
Not to mention Israel of course which is allowed to maintain is deadly arsenal without so much as grumbling, or indeed admission of its existence, from the US. That is some hypocrisy. The fact that Pakistan is in fact run by a military dictator, Pervez Musharraf, a presidential pretender (it’s easy to see why the American elite would like this fellow) unlike Iran which is ostensibly a democracy by comparison, well, it’s no matter. Nothing to see here. Move along.

The Bush administration acknowledged yesterday that it had long known about Pakistan’s plans to build a large plutonium-production reactor, but it said the White House was working to dissuade Pakistan from using the plant to expand its nuclear arsenal.

“We discourage military use of the facility,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said of a powerful heavy-water reactor under construction at Pakistan’s Khushab nuclear site in Punjab state.

Meanwhile, the US is doing its best to spark a broader arms race between the major powers South Asia.

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